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kpgraci
Yak Posting Veteran
68 Posts |
 Posted - 2011-07-08 : 09:34:05
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| In the server logs I see a lot of brute force attacks on the sa account.Is the sa account name required or can I rename it to something else?kpg |
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robvolk
Most Valuable Yak
15732 Posts |
Posted - 2011-07-08 : 09:43:22
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| You can't rename sa, but you can choose a very strong, random password. You can also disable the sa login.Make sure that your applications are not using sa, and also have another account with sysadmin privileges (preferably a Windows login) in case sa gets locked and you need to access SQL Server. |
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kpgraci
Yak Posting Veteran
68 Posts |
Posted - 2011-07-11 : 16:49:09
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quote:
Originally posted by robvolk
You can't rename sa, but you can choose a very strong, random password. You can also disable the sa login.
hmmm...I renamed it per this example:ALTER LOGIN sa DISABLE;ALTER LOGIN sa WITH NAME = IAMGOD;ALTER LOGIN IAMGOD ENABLE;And I disabled it using the property dialog, which I suppose could be done as:ALTER LOGIN sa DISABLE;ALTER LOGIN sa WITH NAME = IAMGOD;kpg |
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robvolk
Most Valuable Yak
15732 Posts |
Posted - 2011-07-11 : 16:58:56
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Wow, I did not know that was possible.  Good to know! I'd recommend picking a nondescript name though, IAMGOD is somewhat obvious. |
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GilaMonster
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
4507 Posts |
Posted - 2011-07-11 : 17:10:28
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| You can rename it. I still recommend disable. If it's altered there's still a chance it could be guessed. If it's disabled it cannot be used.If you do rename, as a safety precaution, change it back to 'sa' before applying service packs or upgrading. There have been problems with upgrades when the sa account has been renamed (sa hardcoded in the scripts)--Gail ShawSQL Server MVP |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
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jeffw8713
Aged Yak Warrior
819 Posts |
Posted - 2011-07-11 : 22:06:41
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| Just a warning, but there have been several cases where renaming sa has caused service pack/hot fix updates to fail. I don't recommend renaming it - but disabling the login is fine.I normally don't worry about renaming or disabling, because when I setup a system I use at least a 20 character randomly generated very strong password. Once the setup is done, I put that password in a safe and nobody gets access to it. |
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sa account attacks